Dooley Noted: 8/9/2015
Last November, I awoke with right arm pain. I was unable to post a getup with my bodyweight on my right arm.
I couldn’t press a 10 kg kettle bell without pain.
I had wonderful clinicians and coaches in my army, so I worked around the injury.
There were pervasive thoughts that I would never press again with my right arm.
I quieted the thoughts with the faith that my body could overcome anything.
I trained in non-painful ranges with the right arm and built up my strength and stability on the left arm. For a long while, my left side took time to catch up with the previous strength found on the right.
Before I knew it, the left was better than the right ever was.
The right arm pain slowly but surely vanished.
I spent the last several months taking advantage of the lack of discomfort in my right arm,
noticing the strength I had built on the left side.
From injury, I had achieved the symmetry that was waiting for me to earn it.
Yesterday, while training at Catalyst, I pressed the 22 kg with my right hand.
It was my previous PR.
And there I was, able to press it again, 10 months after the injury.
I was so overcome with relief and absolute joy that I fell to my knees weeping.
I took this pic to remind myself – and to remind all of you – that you can bounce from injury.
Now, the negative person would look at the last 10 months as a loss, since I made no strength gains in my right arm on the press.
But my left side was barely able to press the 20 kg before the injury.
Last night, I pressed that bell for 5 repetitions with my left arm, after a full workout.
To be symmetrically strong is so much better than a PR on one arm.
By learning from my injury, I became more symmetrical, thus preventing future injuries.
You can absolutely wait around, hoping you recover from injury.
Or you can let the injury educate you, thus becoming more symmetrical and unlocking a new level of strength.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
